The massive assault on the city of Nablus last night is just the latest step in Israel’s methodical offensive against the Palestinians. Israeli forces have taken over six major West Bank towns and cities — Ramallah, Qalqiliya, Jenin, Tulkarem, Bethlehem, Nablus. The towns of Jericho and Hebron remain the last islands in Palestinian control. Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested, and countless others have been killed and...

Saudi Arabia’s Middle East peace initiative will top the agenda when Crown Prince Abdullah meets President Bush on April 25. The de facto Saudi leader’s peace initiative — which offers Israel normal ties with Arabs in exchange for a full withdrawal of Arab land occupied in 1967 — won full backing at last month’s Arab summit in Beirut.

An ad-hoc group of Muslim organizations has accused the Bush administration of racial and religious harassment. Theyare citing the Justice Department’s call for more than 3,000 foreign nationals to submit to so-called "voluntary"interviews. They are also outraged that federal agents raided some 14 Muslim organizations and homes in WestVirginia and Georgia last week.

The US is preparing to launch further strikes against pockets of resistance still holding out in South and East Afghanistan. Meanwhile, in the first concrete sign that the US is planning military action against Iraq, CIA officers have surveyed three key airfields in northern Iraq. [includes rush transcript]

On Saturday, a jury convicted Muslim cleric and former Black Panther Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. RapBrown, of killing one sheriff’s deputy and wounding another in a shootout in Atlanta in March 2000. Jurorsdeliberated 10 hours over two days before finding Al-Amin guilty of 13 counts, including murder, aggravated assaulton a police officer, obstruction, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. Jurors will decide...

It is 27 degrees today outside in New York, a chilling reminder of the events of the day six months ago. Today is thesix-month anniversary of the September 11th. On that day, 19 men hijacked four airplanes and sent them hurtling intosome of the most vaunted symbols of American might and power: the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. More thanthree thousand people died in the attacks. Since then, thousands more have lost their lives in the US...

Since September 11th, more than a thousand Arab and south-Asian nationals have been detained indefinitely withouttrial, charge, or legal rights. The Justice Department acknowledged the arrest of 1,200 people before it stoppedreleasing numbers in November; human rights groups believe the total number could be as high as 2,000.

Rabih Haddad’s case and the thousands of detained and disappeared in this country has caused barely a blip inmainstream public opinion or the US media in the prevailing mood of indulgence towards law enforcement agencies. Thepassage of the USAPATRIOT Act and recent executive actions by the Bush administration offer some context for the newwave of repression against Muslim-American communities and activist communities across the country....

The intense air war that supposedly smashed the Taliban and still seeks to disable or kill its top leaders has left a string of mistakes across southern Afghanistan. And even the US media is beginning to look into why Afghans have been forced to live and die with US mistakes during the war on Afghanistan.

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